A blog where I can show people the art I create. I call them "little worlds" because each one is unique and separate, constructed according to the internal rules I set for it, with just a touch of randomness allowed into the design, to bring it to life and make it just unpredictable enough to be interesting. I never know for sure how each design will turn out until the last line is drawn and the last block of color is applied.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

This week I'll be showing off my work from April, 2012, and continuing my desecration of the greatest fantasy novels of the 20th century with a new episode of Kevin Koastie! Let's get started, shall we? I've shown some of these before, so I'll just post those without comment.

Dark Designs has nothing particularly sinister in the design, but the color palette I selected was so dark and gloomy that the name just leapt out at me.

Cosmic Egg With Double Yolks. 4/9/12

Spring Swirly. 4/12/12

The Swirly (with links) is a pattern that can be extended infinitely, so I marked the edges of this effort with a double-line treatment. Just trying something different.

Complex Progression. 4/15/12

Complex Progression was a variation on the Cosmic Egg With Double Yolks motif, but I tried something new with the coloring pattern. I call it the Three-Point Progression and I've been using it a lot since this one. It makes the designs "sparkle".

Dark Designs 2. 4/18/12

Similar in title, completely different in design, similar in color palette. Color makes the difference!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

March 2012 was a low-production month for me. At least, if I produced any more designs in March, I may have sold them or given them away. Since my record keeping is a perfect match for my memory, I have no idea what I was doing for the first 11 days of this month. But on the other hand, 3 of the 4 have never been posted here before, so enjoy!IMAO Link of the Day - Dragon vs Bunny Rabbit

Solar Flare. 3/12/12

Solar Flare is a off-kilter, center-out, hyphenated dream catcher. Just another day at the office!

Bottom Up Coincidental Spiral. 3/14/12

With Bottom Up Coincidental Spiral I colored it from the bottom to the top. I was surprised at how the colors naturally flowed into the spiral pattern. I learn something new every day.

Blue Cyclone. 3/19/12

Another off-kilter variation with a different sort of edge treatment.

Dragon T2B+R2L=PD. 3/23/12

The formula stand for "Top to bottom plus right to left equals pseudo-dragon." It just looks like a dragon to me. With a few twitches to the design, it might have looked more like a bunny-rabbit.

Here's 2 new picture pages. I found something new and interesting to do with cubes.

Black and White Test 14

Black and White Test 15

And finally, Kevin Koastie stumbles into another adventure - with apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien.

Update: 8/18/14: Also apologies to Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and any other authors whose work I may misquote, lampoon or outright plagiarize in the weeks ahead. And special recognition to any Fire-Breathing Penguins who may be fans!

In Brickwork I tried to continue the pattern all the way to the center, but the lines ended up too close together. the shapes and colors kinda sorta reminded me of bricks or tiles, hence the title.

Illusion of Roundness. 2/6/12

I posted this one before in one of my posts featuring 'globes'. In the comments Oppo said he could see a 'green monster' in the center. So an alternative title could be Oppo's Green Monster. The accidental creation of something I didn't intend is what I've called "Genius Unintentional". It happens sometimes - what'cha gonna do?
This one is also my first (unsuccessful) attempt at a 6-point globe.

Convex Window. 2/9/12

Convex Window, on the other hand, may be my first (and so far only) attempt at an 8-point globe. I just didn't realize it at the time. I went on to try different takes on the same motif, but I think I may have to go back and try this one again.

Protraction. 2/13/12

Magenta Sunrise. 2/16/12

These next two are related in form and color pallet, but different in two significant secondary elements. One of structure, the other of color application. The differences are revealed in the titles. Both are experiments. I wanted to compare both elements in two related designs, with the hope that their similarities would make them a matched set, attractive to a discerning buyer maybe(?) Well, no buyers yet so here they are!

Monday, August 4, 2014

All righty then! Tonight I'm gonna show y'all the work I finished in the month of July. But first, I'm going to conduct a test of my slowly developing blogger skillz by trying to link a cute video with a catchy tune. Caution! The tune has been bouncing around in my head for more than a week now!

These two are completely different, except for where they're exactly alike. I used different sized and different colored drawing paper on each, and different colors to finish them, but I observed the same rules of design in each (with variations). I could probably do a hundred of these, and never repeat the same pattern once.

Perfection. (Well, close enough anyway.) 7/11/14

Back in June I was wrestling with a 5-point globe design. I finally got it pinned down. So, here we have a cross inside a 4-point globe, inside a 5-point globe, inside a Briarwood weave. It turned out the way I wanted it to, so that close enough to perfect for me!

Of course, once I hammered out the details of the 5-point globe design, I set it aside and focused on the background detail of the last design, dragging it to the foreground and making it stand on its own!
(sort of)

Briar Weave Window. 7/15/14

In the Beginning Was the Cube. 7/16/14

With this one, I went back to my "The 'Idea' of Cookies" design, stretched it, fiddled with the secondary elements, tried for a 6-point globe at the center, and extended the design out to the edges of the page with just colors, (no ink). I ended up with a 6-sided void in the center of the design, so I put a cube there, but the title isn't a lie, because That's where I began coloring the design, from the cube - out to the edges. I like designing and drawing these things, and I sometimes go to great pains with all the fiddly details, but they don't really come to life for me until I start applying the colors.
That's why I get more emotionally attached to the colored pencils than I do to the drawing pens, I guess.

Have you heard that there's renewed fighting in Gaza? Something about Palestinian children shooting rockets at the United Nations or something ... Anyway, I'd been hearing the term "Iron Dome" in the news a lot, so that inspired the title of this next one.

Iron Dome. 7/19/14

Oh, and it's also another attempt to figure out the subtleties of a 6-point globe.

Dynamic Balance. 7/22/14

Slightly Stretched Single Strand Symmetrical Weave. 7/24/14

Semi-Random Asymmetrical Single Strand Weave with Star Globe. 7/29/14

These three designs were all variations on a Single Strand Weave. Again, they're all different, except for where they're the same.
But this last one is extra different because of the randomness which led to the asymmetry. I said to myself, "Self! You must pursue this further! But forget about the weaving, just deal with the random asymmetry!"
Well, I usually do what I tell myself to do, but I insisted on certain conditions, which were amiably settled in mutually agreed arbitration, resulting in this last design.
(I'm working on another experiment in uniform semi-random asymmetry right now and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself! Who knows what other wonders the month of August will reveal?)
Stay tuned!

The Butterfly Effect - Illustrated. 7/31/14

Here's 2 more picture pages for you to color if you want to!

Black and White Test #12

Black and White Test #12b.

And finally, Kevin Koastie searched for Intelligent Life... on Earth!

It's a good thing that guy didn't mention 'Intelligent Design', or he'd have Really been in trouble!